You're My Sweetest Prayer
by chalantness
Summary: He has no problem letting her go to do her own thing so long as they always come back together in the end.


**Title: **_You're My Sweetest Prayer__  
_**Rating:** T  
**Word Count:** 2,900+  
**Characters:** Jason/Reyna and the Roman campers  
**Summary:** He has no problem letting her go to do her own thing so long as they always come back together in the end.

**You're My Sweetest Prayer**

He wakes up to find her working.

That's not unusual for him, but this time around, it's just amusing that she's evaluating paperwork while wearing nothing but a bra. This wouldn't be the first time, either, but it's something he knows he'll always find funny, if not completely adorable.

It wasn't always like this, though. Before, she would pull her bra and panties a shirt (usually his) on and move to his desk so she could work. But then he'd told her when he thought she was asleep (he knew she wasn't) that it feel like it was easier for her to just leave him when she did that, so now she grabs what she needs and slides back into bed.

He'd never ask her to do something that would hold her back, and he knows she wouldn't do that to him, either. He has no problem letting her go to do her own thing so long as they always come back together in the end.

That's all he really needs.

He slides his fingertips up her spine, watching her straighten up a little as the corner of her lips fight off a smile.

"You know, I distinctly remember you not having this on when we fell asleep," he murmurs, pushing his thumb over the clasp of her bra. She laughs a little, shuffling the papers in her hands. "You didn't have _those_, either." Her eyes never leave the words on the page, even as she twists a little to hold them out of his reach. "Reyna," he pouts.

"You're not a child," she tells him, finally meeting his eyes.

He smiles at her. "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are in the morning?"

"Jason."

"You are," he insists, shifting to sit upright beside her. Her skin glows in the sunlight shining through the window, her hair out of its usual braid as it falls in loose waves over her shoulders, and her dark eyes are sparkling as she gazes at him from underneath her long eyelashes.

"You say that every morning," she says softly. "Actually, you say that I'm beautiful almost every hour of the day."

"Because you're crazy enough to not believe me every time I say it," he tells her simply.

She opens her mouth, probably to protest, but he presses his lips to hers before she can get a word out. He kisses her once, twice, three times, pushing the papers from her hands and winding his arms around her so that he's holding her firmly. She pushes a hand into his hair, the other gripping his bicep to keep upright, and kisses him back with equal fervor.

"Jason," she breathes when she finally parts their kiss long enough to get her voice out, but he just kisses her again, longer this time.

"I love the way you say my name," he murmurs against her lips.

"Jason," she giggles – something she only does around him – as he keeps kissing her. "Jason," she tries again, twisting her head away and gasping for a little more air, and he kisses her cheek, and then the underside of her jaw, and then her neck. "Stop it," she exhales.

"Why?" he asks against her skin.

"I have paperwork to finish," she reminds, though he can hear the reluctance in her tone. "It needs to get done."

"You work too much." She arches an eyebrow and he grins. "You know, you could always forget about that stuff, especially for today. Make Octavian do it." She makes a face (she thoroughly believes that you have to do things yourself if you want them done right) and he kisses the crease that forms between her eyebrows. "Actually, forget I said that."

"I will." He laughs. "I'm sorry. I'll try to—"

"No, don't rush," he assures, kissing the bridge of her nose. "Do what you need to do. Take your time. I'll get started on breakfast."

"Thank you." She smiles at him. "Do you mind if I work in the kitchen while you're cooking?"

"_Well_…" he teases, laughing when she rolls her eyes at him playfully. "I'd love it if you'd accompany me."

He slides onto his feet and steps into his boxers as she gathers the paperwork he pushed out of her hands, shuffling them back into a pile. When she swings her legs over the side of the bed, he leans down and sets his hands against the mattress as he kisses her slowly, and she whimpers a little before he pulls away.

"Happy Birthday, Reyna."

... ...

She tells them every year that they don't have to make a big deal out of her birthday.

And every year they make a big deal out of it.

Usually they're pretty good about respecting her wishes, especially when it comes to personal matters, but birthdays have always been that special exception for everyone. Unless they're in the middle of a crisis, your birthday gets celebrated. It's a tradition that Reyna has always found incredibly sweet.

Even Octavian seems less irritable when there's a birthday party going on.

"Reyna!" a voice exclaims as soon as she's stepping into the Fifth Cohort, and then Gwendolyn is throwing her arms around Reyna, squeezing tightly, "Happy Birthday!"

Reyna allows a smile. "Aren't you supposed to be in college?"

Gwen pulls away, pretending to frown. "Way to make me feel loved, Rey," she pouts. Reyna laughs. "I came here just for you!"

"And I'm happy to see you," Reyna tells her sincerely, and Gwen squeezes her forearm.

"Happy Birthday, Your Highness."

Dakota comes to stand behind her, laughing at the way Reyna wrinkles her face when he pats her head and ends up ruffling her braid a little. He must've had an extra Kool-Aid this morning if he decided it was okay to mess with her hair. "Jeez, Dakota," Gwen scolds, pushing his hand away with a slap. "Now I have to fix her hair."

Gwen pushes Reyna into a chair, her fingers already undoing her hair so she can re-braid it, as Bobby steps in. He smiles at the two girls.

"Wow, talk about déjà vu." Reyna chuckles a little, and Bobby slides a small box onto the table, lifting the lid to reveal a large cupcake with purple icing and yellow sprinkles. He sticks a yellow candle in the middle and hands it to her, adding, "Happy Birthday, Reyna."

"Thank you," she says.

Someone reaches out and swipes snatches some of the frosting, and she looks up to see Jason licking his fingers clean, grinning at her like a child caught red-handed.

"I hope you washed your hands, Grace," Reyna tells him.

"Seriously, that's disgusting," Gwen adds. "We didn't even light the candle."

"Well, I bet you I can make it up to her." He's grinning at Reyna again, taking her free hand and pulling her up despite Gwen's protest that she's not done with her braid. "She looks beautiful either way," he says simply, and Reyna fights off the blush she feels on her cheeks as their friends collectively coo.

"Okay, fine," Gwen relents, "Take her. But you guys better not blow out any candles without us!"

Jason tugs Reyna out of the room without replying.

... ...

"You know, I didn't even get a bite out of my own cupcake," Reyna tells him as they're walking down the pathway, their fingers laced between them. Jason grins at her, leans over and kisses her. She can taste from of the sugar from the frosting on his tongue.

"Tastes good," he says when he pulls away.

"It does," she agrees.

He licks his lips a little and smiles at her like she missed something. "I meant you," he corrects.

"Oh." She squeezes their fingers together, and he brings her hand up, presses a kiss to the back of it and then to her knuckles. She smiles. He's always kissing her, and it never fails to make her stomach flutter in the best way possible.

(She'd asked him about it once, and he'd told her that he was making up for all of the times before when he wanted to kiss her but didn't.)

She notices that they're walking towards New Rome, and though she's tempted to ask why, she stops herself. When they started walking, he'd said it's a surprise, and she doesn't want to ruin whatever effort he's putting into this because of her need to know everything. Besides, she trusts him, and he knows her a lot more than she's willing to admit.

She knows he wouldn't make her do anything she'd be against.

So she sighs a little, leans against his side, and he pulls his hand from hers to drape his arms around her like he had this morning.

When they reach the Pomerian Line, their hushed conversation is drowned out in the bustling sounds of New Rome. They're greeted them good morning as they pass by, everyone wishing Reyna a happy birthday, and they stop to chat with people before moving on. Reyna doesn't remember the last time they took a stroll through New Rome without being stopped to talk with someone but she doesn't mind it all. When you work with such disciplined people, it's nice to be able to have casual conversations every now and then.

Then Jason leads them towards the Lake and curiosity starts getting the better of her.

"My surprise is at the Lake?"

"It is," he replies.

She bites her lower lip a little. "I'm not even wearing a bathing suit."

"I know," he chuckles, pulling her close.

"Jason, you know me well enough to know that I'm not going skinny dipping in daylight—"

He's laughing now, leading her off of the path and onto the grass. "Relax, Rey," he tells her, and she does. "Though," he adds with a quirk of his eyebrow, "considering you said _daylight_, I'm going to make a mental note to try and get you to go skinny dipping with me at night."

She opens her mouth to say something when she looks ahead, the words dying on her tongue when she sees a basket atop the blanket that's spread out beside the Lake.

"My surprise is a picnic?"

"Sort of," he says, pulling her towards the blanket.

He lifts the lid of the basket, digs inside and then tosses something at her so quickly that she's surprised she caught it. She turns the material in her hands over and realizes that she's holding a purple bathing suit. When she looks at Jason, heat floods her cheeks as she watches him unzip his jean cutoffs, pushing them down to reveal swim trunks.

"It's your turn."

She blinks at him. He _couldn't_ be… Is her asking her to change out in the open?

"_Jason_," she hisses, hugging the bathing suit to her chest.

"What?" he asks innocently. He leans down and plucks the blanket up, walking over to her and circling around her so that she's entirely covered. "No one's around to see you, anyway. Just me, but," he smiles a little more, "that shouldn't embarrass you considering how many times we've—"

"Okay!" she interrupts.

He grins triumphantly, and she just shakes her head. She doesn't know when Jason learned to best her.

"You couldn't have asked me to change into a bathing suit this morning and save me this trouble?" she asks, letting her toga fall to the grass.

"That would've ruined the surprise," he practically sings.

She rolls her eyes, swiftly sliding her armor off. She's surprised she even remembers how to undress, considering Jason's been the one pulling her out of her clothes every night. She doesn't even blush when she thinks about that, because he's right. She's not embarrassed around him, at least not anymore. And it's not just because they're together.

She's never felt as comfortable with anyone else as she always has with Jason.

He looks away when she starts sliding out of her panties, which she's kind of glad for. If he had been looking at her while she stripped…

She may just abandon her rule against skinny dipping in daylight. So she quickly slides herself into the purple one-piece before she can do something stupid like kiss him in the middle of the field while she's completely naked underneath this blanket.

"I'm done," she tells him, adjusting the straps so that they're not digging into her shoulders. It fits perfectly, and she wonders if he asked Gwen for help or just sized her up himself.

He glances at her from the side just to make sure before dropping the blanket onto the grass.

"Perfect," he says, and she catches the glint in his eyes a second too late.

Because then she's saying, "Jason, don't even—" and he's scooping her in his arms, tossing her through the air and into the middle of the lake.

Cold water rushes all around her, she shivers a little at the sensation before swimming upward and gasping for air as soon as she breaks the surface of the Lake. She pushes her hair from her face and blinks a few times, listening to the sound of Jason's laughter as her vision focuses again.

"_Jason!_" she yells.

He laughs harder, peeling off his purple camp shirt and dropping it onto her pile of clothes, and when her eyes land on his bare chest, she feels breathless for a different reason. He takes a few steps back before running forward, curling into himself as he lands into the water a few feet away from her, splashing water everywhere.

Then she feels something grasp her ankle and pull her back under water, and he wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her to his chest and sliding his lips over hers.

Her lungs are on fire, and she pushes away a few seconds later and swims back to the surface, gasping for air again. Jason comes up as well, whipping more water into her face, and he's laughing kind of breathlessly as he swims over to her.

"I bet you've never had a birthday like this before."

She laughs and shakes her head.

It seems like ever since everything that happened with Gaea, he's made it one of his personal missions to come up with memorable birthdays.

Last year he'd taken her and their friends to the Trevi Fountain at night and turned it into a chocolate fondue fountain. The year before then, when they'd been searching for Percy and Annabeth, they took Scipio and Tempest on a flight that made her feel like she could touch the constellations.

She thinks it has to do with all of the regret he felt for the things they didn't do and say. And she's sure the talks he's had with Percy brought it on, too. At least when Juno swapped them, Percy remembered Annabeth clearly, even if most of the details were gone. The feelings were still there and they were still potent, backed up with what little memories he had, and Percy just knew he had to get back to her. Reyna's sure that Jason wants to be able to remember her as strongly as Percy had remembered Annabeth.

"It's surely one I'll never forget," she says, and he gives her a brilliant smile.

... ...

"Don't forget to make a wish!"

"You're such a kid, Gwen," Dakota laughs, and then groans a little when he doesn't dodge the punch Gwen throws at his arm in time.

Reyna smiles and feels the rumble of Jason's chest as he laughs at their friends.

They're standing in the field off of the barracks, and it's dark enough that most of the stars are visible against the purplish nighttime sky. They each have a paper lantern in hand, and Hazel – who just got back from her visit to Camp Half-Blood (aka: Leo) as a liaison between the two camps – is going around with a candle to light them.

"Isn't this a Japanese tradition?" Octavian inquires.

"Well, you don't _have_ to do it," Bobby reminds, and Octavian rolls his eyes, holding his lantern out when Hazel comes by to light it.

"You know, he secretly loves all of us," Jason whispers into her ear. Reyna chuckles a little. "He especially loves you. I think he may even have a crush on you."

The thought is enough to make her wrinkle her nose, but she just laughs because she knows he's teasing her. She remembers that brief moment that feels longer ago than it actually was where Jason was actually a little jealous because he was convinced that every guy in camp had a thing for Reyna. Now, he doesn't seem bothered by the thought at all.

They've come a long way from the small crushes they'd had on each other from the start.

Hazel walks up to them, beaming, and Jason holds his lantern out for her to light. When she's done, she lights her own lantern and then hands the candle to Reyna, saying, "Make a wish, Rey."

Reyna smiles as she lights her own lantern, blowing out the candle.

Everyone else releases their lanterns, cheering and clapping and laughing, and she meets Jason's eyes before he presses their lips together. She lets her lantern slip from her fingers, and she knows that Jason does, too, because his hands settle at her hips.

And when he breaks the kiss a few seconds later, he holds her as close as physically possible and they tilt their heads up and watch their paper lanterns float up into the sky.


End file.
